Soon only one U.S. state will still have an indoor mask mandate

Wearing a face mask is becoming increasingly optional as pandemic rules ease across much of the U.S., the most visible shift in how millions of Americans today view the threat from COVID-19.

Every state, with the exception of Hawaii, is either ditching or planning to eliminate mask mandates as the Omicron surge recedes, with infections and hospitalizations declining even as the disease continues to kill about 2,000 Americans a day. California, Nevada, New Mexico are among the states that discarded mask mandates this month. The return to some semblance of pre-pandemic life also includes some of the country's biggest employers, with other companies going even further and dropping vaccine requirements for workers. 

"I think people are more comfortable, so even when we had the mask requirement people were still coming out — but I think it makes a big difference," Javier Amaro, a vendor in Las Cruces, New Mexico, told a CBS affiliate.